Heavy traffic and ever increasing complexity of roadway systems make navigating a vehicle ever more difficult. With the advance of global positioning systems (GPS) and computer technology, conventional road maps have been transformed into computer displays on vehicle-based navigation systems that display the current location of the vehicle. A conventional vehicle based navigation system operates by GPS and a CD-ROM with a digital road map (e.g., touch sensitive display) that holds all the information the system needs to display for the directions to a pre-selected destination.
The digital road map also functions as a user interface for the navigation unit. For safety considerations, some government regulations only allow conventional vehicle based navigation systems to be programmed (e.g., a destination address can be entered) when the vehicle is stopped. In some cases, the vehicle must be in a parking gear and the emergency brake must be applied to program the device (e.g., enter a destination address). In other cases, the vehicle must be stopped with the brake pedal engaged before the navigation system can be programmed.
As a result, prior to driving, the driver must enter the destination address in the control unit. The computer then maps out the best route to reach the driver's destination. However, if the driver wants to change the destination or the route, the driver must stop the vehicle in a safe location and apply the parking brake or brake pedal before re-programming the device.
Although these safeguards prevent a driver from becoming distracted while driving, unfortunately also, they prevent a passenger of the vehicle from modifying the navigation system while the vehicle is in motion, which is very inconvenient and inefficient because passenger interaction with the navigation system does not pose any substantial safety issues.